United Nations and African Union peacekeepers headed for Sudan’s Darfur region stand little chance of success without a robust peace agreement, observers warn, and could end up becoming scapegoats for ongoing violence.

One of the biggest challenges Tony Blair will face as a Middle East envoy of the international community is Arab anger over the wars in Iraq and Lebanon, and the suspicion that he is a lackey of US President George W. Bush.

Scotland’s high court must hear a new appeal by Libyan intelligence agent Abdel Basset Al Megrahi against his conviction for the 1988 Lockerbie airliner bombing, an independent review body said on Thursday.